NBA sides to meet with federal mediator

Will this be Super Tuesday or the beginning of the end for the NBA season?

Representatives from the league and its players' union will meet Tuesday at a Manhattan hotel for the first time since talks broke off Oct. 10. This time, after negotiations stalled to the point that the NBA canceled the first two weeks of the regular season, a federal mediator will oversee the proceedings and offer advisement.

A reason for hope?

"If there's a breakthrough," commissioner David Stern said last week on NBATV, "it's going to come on Tuesday."

George H. Cohen, who in February invested 16 days trying -- and ultimately failing -- to solve the NFL's impasse with the NFL Players Association, is the director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and will preside over the negotiations. He spent Monday meeting separately with both sides before preparing for Tuesday's critical meeting.

Cohen, who has worked with Major League Soccer, represented the Major League Baseball Players Association during the 1994-95 baseball strike and previously worked with the National Basketball Players Association, isn't just jumping into this now. He has kept in touch with the legal representation from the NBA and NBPA throughout the process.

"It is evident that the ongoing dispute will result in a serious impact, not only upon the parties directly involved, but also, of major concern, on interstate commerce -- i.e., the employers and working men and women who provide services related to the basketball games, and, more generally, on the economy of every city in which those games are scheduled to be played," Cohen said in a statement last week.

It should be noted, however, that whatever decisions he makes are nonbinding and, therefore, might be useless.

At the very least, Cohen could provide some suggestions that might spur some movement from both sides, but that could be mere posturing for the stronger government voice in this: the National Labor Relations Board.

Each side has filed complaints with the NLRB, which is investigating both. The league attempted to have the union's complaint dismissed, but last week the NLRB reportedly denied that request.

The league is scheduled to hold a Board of Governors meeting Wednesday and Thursday, during which time Stern said a new revenue-sharing plan -- one of the many issues in collective bargaining -- will be presented for approval. But if there remains no progress with the union after Tuesday, these meetings with the owners also may involve a decision to cancel more regular-season games -- perhaps as many as two months.

Stern suggested in a radio interview last Thursday that games could be lost through Christmas if something isn't achieved Tuesday.Turiaf to play in France.Asvel reports Knicks center Ronny Turiaf will play for the French club during the NBA lockout. Turiaf will join Spurs guard and fellow Frenchman Tony Parker, who is a part owner of Asvel and also has agreed to play for the club during the lockout. Turiaf told Asvel's website Monday that he plans to arrive in France on Thursday and start practicing with the club this weekend. Turiaf said he has recovered from a left hand injury that kept him out of this summer's European Championship.